Windsor Heights will be getting the sidewalks residents have worked for more than a year to fight off, but at the city's expense.

The Windsor Heights City Council voted Monday to move forward with installing 11 blocks of sidewalks near Cowles Montessori School and Clive Learning Academy. Residents last month successfully fought off the city's plan to specially assess 173 homeowners living on 64th Street, Del Matro Avenue and Northwest Street by proving an overwhelming majority were against the project.

Homeowners faced bills ranging from $1,000 to $9,500 for the sidewalks.

Now the city will pick up the $904,334 tab. A portion of the money will come from revenue generated by the city's speed cameras.

"Our main concern is for the safety of our residents' children and our city's visitors," said Mayor Diana Willits. "It's all about safe routes to school."

Monday's vote marked more than a year of contentious hearings and debates in Windsor Heights, where neighborhood streets have remained mostly without sidewalks since homes were built in the 1950s.

The sidewalks were first proposed in May 2016 when a group of parents asked for sidewalks leading to the two schools. Since then, many longtime residents have opposed the idea, packing city meetings and putting yellow "no sidewalks" signs in their front yards.

Speakers in opposition of sidewalks at public hearings have been met with cheers, while supporters have been sneered. Councilman Tony Timm said he heard residents Monday telling sidewalk supporters "to move back to where they came from."

"This has become a situation where the enemy of my enemy is my friend," said resident Frank Debartolo at Monday's meeting. "The populous of Windsor Heights is united in opposition of a City Council that is determined in its wrong-headed, single-minded quest to install sidewalks that no one wants."

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A car drives around Mike Draper and his family as they walk to Cowles Montessori School in Windsor Heights last May. He started a petition to get sidewalks built along 64th Street.(Photo: Kim Norvell/Register file photo)

But unlike other public meetings, sidewalk supporters represented about one-quarter of Monday's speakers. The contingent had largely remained silent.

"Everyone needs to have reasonable access to get around safely, and without sidewalks we don't have that," said resident Shelley Skuster. "As a newer resident, I seriously cannot believe that this even a debate."

The city estimates 200 children will use the new sidewalks to get to area schools, Willits said.

Windsor Heights will use a combination of funds to pay for the nearly $1 million project, including $147,284.40 that was generated from the city's two speed cameras on University Avenue. The cameras began issuing fines, ranging from $65 to $80, on Jan. 27. The city will also use funds from a tax increment financing district and leftover bond revenue from a street reconstruction project on Sunset Terrace.

Taking out a bank loan to pay for the project would have raised Windsor Heights' tax levy upwards of 57 cents.

Sidewalks will not be installed on Northwest Drive because bids came in higher than the city's engineer anticipated. Eliminating the smaller street was suggested by the city's policy and finance committee. It reduces the project's original scope by five blocks and saves the city $127,000.

"We had to do something to make it work, so we focused on safe routes to school," Timm said. "We'll look at doing Northwest Drive next calendar year when we have a new opportunity to look at numbers, but we thought we'd put forward the best plan."

Construction is expected to begin by July 10. By the end of the summer, sidewalks will be installed at:

Del Matro Avenue from 64th to 73rd streets;

64th Street from College to University avenues; and

64th Street from Northwest to Franklin avenues.

The City Council voted 4-1 to approve the project. Councilwoman Betty Glover voted against it. Glover made a motion to install sod instead of seed along the project area, but it was rejected. It would have added $68,000 to the project.